Whales can also die from melancholy

According to experts, over two decades of loosening the ban on whale hunting, the ocean's most majestic marine mammals have only recovered a bit of their once-thriving populations.

Supporters of whale hunting and conservationist countries will have a debate this week in Santiago, Chile at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Although there was a ban on hunting whales for commercial purposes approved in 1986, Japan, Norway and Ireland continued to hunt more than 2,000 whales each year, mainly spearhead whales ( minke whale together with smaller numbers of humpback whale, fin whales (fin whale) and Sei whales (sei whale).

Countries that oppose whaling and conservation groups reject the necessary quotas, and demand to maintain and validate the ban. All groups agreed that some species are on the sidelines of extinction.

The number of right whale North Atlantic and North Pacific, two distinct species, together with gray whale have been reduced to a few hundred individuals surviving in each species.

Regina Asmutis-Silvia, a biologist at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Association, said: 'They are in a dire situation ', their populations will not be increased without spending 70 years of conservation. .

According to scientists, even if the species has a number of thousands, an increase of 3 - 4% every year or even 7-8% will not escape the threat. It takes tens of years for them to grow freely, unimpeded so that they can restore their original numbers.

According to Jean-Benoit Charrassin, a marine biologist at the National Museum of History in Paris and a French representative at IWC, a 25-meter (80-fit) blue whale weighs as much as an airplane. The jet restored the number of 400 individuals in the 1970s to about 2,200 individuals today.

'But that's only about 1% of their original population,' he said.

Flock of spearhead whales swim through the glaciers in the Southern Ocean away from the Australian Antarctic Territory in 2007. (Photo: www.daylife.com )

At least there are about 250,000 blue whales in the Antarctic waters in the early 19th century, when new innovations such as tuberculosis and processing on the boat almost brought them on display in the museum. Antarctic humpback whales are slightly more advanced, with populations of about 50,000, equal to 30% of the original population size with an annual increase of 7% or 8%.

But scientists, along with conservation groups, still firmly oppose whaling for commercial purposes even for the thriving whales. Charrassin said: 'There are so many things we are not sure about statistics'.

A recent study based on surveys conducted in 2007 led by Gisli Vikingson of the Icelandic Marine Animal Research Institute has shown a period of serious decline since 2001 for the spearhead whale population. Get Ban and Norway killed over 1,600 in 2007.

Hunting for commercial purposes is not the only threat to whales. Asmutis - Silvia said: 'It would be a mistake if only for hunting. We need to recognize the overall impact of other factors such as collisions with large ships, whales caught in fishing nets, pollution, environmental damage or noise disturbance. '

Climate change is also another hidden danger. The phenomenon of acidified oceans caused by global warming could also reduce the number of krill - the shrimp-like creature is the main meal component of whales.

An adult blue whale can eat up to 40 million krill a day. Even if this crustacean can withstand acidification, whales must also compete with fishing grounds when tons of molluscs are taken for fish.

For Yves Paccalet - a French naturalist and philosopher who helped to complete the ban in 1986, this highly organized and intelligent social organism was probably exhausted after a long-running war. With people, they simply gave up the war.

Paccalet once collaborated with the French ocean explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, saying: 'The psychological effect of our invasion settled their intention to exist.'

In response to AFP, he said: 'To breed, whales need more individuals to ensure that they can meet, play and stimulate each other. Otherwise they will fall into melancholy and will stop breeding . '

He added that the number of individual blue whales is so small that they are difficult to overcome. 'Balance is still fragile. If we leave the whales free, they will be able to grow. If we don't do that, the rate of decline will be very fast. '